Ragtime

Ragtime is the ideal jazz cafe in many ways. It's a small place up on the 3rd floor of a rustic building right next to Chitose-Karasuyama station on the Keio Line, a residential part of the western outskirts of Tokyo. A small square room with about 20 seats, the feeling is cozy and inviting, the wooden walls and tables making it feel like home. There are pencils and strips of paper on each table for customer requests, always a sign of good vibes. They say only one per customer but when I went there as a student several years back, spending 3 hours "studying" in the place, they took all my repeated requests. All genres represented and mostly vinyl behind the counter, of course.

On my last visit there were a couple of locals chatting at the counter seats, while the master put on a nice mix of tunes including Tal Farlow, Wynton Kelly and Joao Gilberto. Failry mellow sounds but suitable for a quiet afternoon coffee.

Ragtime is open from 3pm to 2am every day, making it perfect for either an afternoon pit stop or for drinks on your way home. Only in Japan can you find such wonderful jazz cafes in a random western outskirt. Photos of Ragtime now up at Tokyo Jazz Joints.

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TOKYO JAZZ SITE

A guide to Jazz bars, clubs, cafes and shops in the Tokyo and Yokohama city areas. Also home to the OK Jazz Podcast, playing World Music, Jazz, Soul, Funk, Blues and more, also info about live music events, gigs and festivals around town.